


Jolene

by Imalas Nocab (ShakilA_ONealA)



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Bobby (mentioned) - Freeform, Brotherly Love, Case Fic, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gen, How Do I Tag, Inspired by Jolene (Dolly Parton), Love Potion/Spell, Mild Angst, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Monster of the Week, Original Character Death(s), Post-Season/Series 07, Protective Dean Winchester, Protective Sam Winchester, Song Lyrics, Song Parody, Timeline What Timeline, canon compliant language, castiel (mentioned) - Freeform, got the idea from tumblr
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-18
Updated: 2021-01-18
Packaged: 2021-03-16 17:22:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,990
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28834824
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShakilA_ONealA/pseuds/Imalas%20Nocab
Summary: A case with a weird twist, Dean acting odd, and a time limit. Sam is scrambling to solve this case. But how can he when the only clue is the victims shared song preference.
Relationships: Dean Winchester & Sam Winchester, Sam Winchester & dean
Kudos: 7





	Jolene

Sam has been working on the case for hours, Dean had left after three, but he couldn’t figure out what was doing the killings. There had been four deaths so far, all men ranging from 17 - 45 the only common factors were that they had been acting odd for several days leading up to their demise and they were all in relationships with the only witnesses to their gruesome deaths. But of course the witnesses were dead ends, they weren’t DEAD, just brain dead. They were in a psych ward. Literally rocking in a corner. The biggest lead they got out of any of them was they were all singing the chorus to Dolly Parton’s Jolene.

_Jolene Jolene_

_Jolene Jolene_

_I’m begging of you_

_Please don’t take my man_

_Jolene Jolene_

_Jolene Jolene_

_Please don’t take him_

_Just because you can_

He had looked in all of Bobby’s lore books, but none of the creatures had quite fit. Dean of course decided to ‘investigate the locals’ instead of helping Sam so he was probably already at some girls house. 

Sam’s eyes ached and the words on the laptop were blurry. His body was shutting down, whether he found something or not, and he didn’t want his back to hurt in the morning. He got up and collapsed on the bed farthest from the door. Hopefully tomorrow Dean would be back and maybe they could find a lead. They should reach out to see if the vic's friends knew anything.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

_You’re beauty is beyond compare_

_With flaming locks of auburn hair_

_With ivory skin and eyes of emerald green_

_You’re voice is soft like summer rain_

Sam groaned as he was woken up by the radio, looking at the clock he saw it was 7am and what the heck was he doing up this early. He didn’t even remember setting an alarm. The sound of humming made him roll over, finding his brother already awake. What time did he get back? How much sleep did he even get? Dean grinned at him with his mouth full and gestured to a bag on the table. 

“Up and at ‘em Sammy, breakfast is ready and we got a monster to gank. I even got you your stupid heath junk.”

Sam really wanted to just shove his face back in his pillow, but the food smelled really good, so he let out a sound akin to a dying beagle and rolled out of bed, stumbling to the table.

“Dean, what are you so happy about? Did last night go well? And why is there an alarm on the radio?”

Dean swallowed the last of his food and grabbed a bottle of cheap beer from the window sill next to him. “ As a matter of fact I did make some WONDERFUL connections with the town folk, and I think I found a lead.” 

“A lead?”

“Yeah, apparently three of the vics were cheating on their wives and I’d bet money the kid was too, he didn’t look like the religious one and done faithful type. So I say we talk to some of his buddies and see if this isn’t some wacky lady in white.”

Dean slammed the bottle down and grinned like he was the greatest thing since salt. But Sam wasn’t so quick to agree.

“I don’t know man, it just doesn’t feel right. The bodies didn’t fit a lady in whites MO and I didn’t see any deaths that would cause a Lady in the online archives last night.”

Dean rolled his eyes and good naturedly flicked Sam’s ear, which - WEIRD.

“Sammy, despite your religious devotion to it, the internet doesn’t know all. Besides don’t make this harder than it needs to be, I figure we could gank her by tonight, stay in town another day or two to chill and then we can be on our merry way, happier and better off for the people we’ve met.”

Now it was Sam’s turn to roll his eyes.

“Is getting laid all you think about?”

“Sammy! How could you think me so shallow, they also have half of booze tomorrow for Mr. Jankins birthday.” 

“Mr. Jankins?”

Dean grinned dopily.

“Yeah, life of the party that old geezer.” 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“So get this, apparently after the party last night, Mr. Jenkins went home to sit with his wife. Apparently they were sitting on the patio together for about half an hour. Then the neighbor called 911, apparently, she heard Mrs. Jankins crying, then shouting, when it all stopped abruptly she went to go check on them." Sam looks up from the laptop as he talks. "She found Mr. Jankins dead and just as nasty as the last four vics. Only, Mrs. Jenkins wasn’t comatose at first, she was screaming at the officers that ‘Jo’ did it." Sam's face looks confused, but he continues. "When the officer tried to get a description of this Lena she started shaking then humming and then started screaming the chorus to Jolene”

“Like, Dolly Parton Jolene?” Dean is fidgeting with one of the guns, field striping it while he listens to his little brother.

“Yeah, and here’s the weird part. There’s no one named Jo in this town or in the next closest four.” At this point, Sam flips the laptop around so Dean can see the non-existent fruits of his labor.

“So you thinking some monster who plays with its food.” 

“Maybe, yeah. According to the neighbor, who went to book club with Mrs. Jankins, she thought Mr. Jankins was cheating on her after hearing him mumble in his sleep.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Dean? Dean. DEAN!” Sam yelled frustratedly, he had been talking for the last hour, and Dean was pretty obviously not listening.

“Huh, what? Sammy?” Dean jerked out of whatever day dream he had been in, almost spilling the open beer in his hands all over himself.

“Dean, have you heard a word I’ve been saying?”

“No not really, you’re basically just spouting phycobabble because you have no clue WHAT is doing the killing." he finished off his beer and tossed it at Sam's head. "You’re gonna look more up tonight and hope you find something new. And I’M going to go live a little and see if Julie is busy tonight.”

“Seriously Dean? There have been five guys killed less than a week between each other, we’re nearing the deadline for another death and you're wanting to get laid?”

“Sammy, until we know what’s doing the killing we’re as lost as everyone else, might as well spend our time doing something fun.”

“You know what? I give up. Go find your waitress or whatever. I’ll just research on my own and call if I find anything.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sam’s phone rang incessantly, jerking him from his sleep. Which, when did he fall asleep? Looking at his phone he saw it was Elena, the Jankins neighbor. 

“Hello?” His voice was garbled by sleep and he kept blinking reaching with his free hand for his water.

“Hi, Agent Ramone?”

“Yes this is he, is this Elena, Mrs. Jankin’s neighbor?”

“Yes, you told me to call you if I thought of anything else and at first nothing came to mind, but I was looking over some pictures and notes from some old book club meetings and something stuck out, I’m sure it’s nothing but I thought it was an odd coincidence.”

“Trust me ma’am no matter how odd it could be extremely helpful in cracking the case. I’ve heard plenty of odd things before that ended up being the clue we needed to save lives.”

“Yes well, this is definitely out there, but I figured worst it does is waste a few minutes of my time to tell you. Anywho, during a meeting almost two weeks ago now, when Mrs. Jankins first brought up her husband’s cheating. She mentioned something else later in the meeting, it was something about ‘my happiness depends on you’ which was weird in that she was staring at a picture she had. She actually showed the picture later, it was of a drawing of a red haired girl with green eyes and black skin. But what I remember sticking out was that it also had shark teeth, and was against a red background with what looked like the shadow of wings. It was weird because Mrs. Jankins was normally more into western and Amish romance than fantasy or horror genre but to make it weirder when I saw her the day before the, um, incident. She handed me a slip of paper with a web address on it, I had forgotten about it until now, and she had told me it was ‘the truth of what she faced’”

“Thank you so much Elena, Do you think you could give me the paper?”

“No, but I did take a picture should I send it to you?”

“Yes that would be great thank you ma’am” Sam hung up quickly after that and glanced at the clock, it was almost 10:30am now and Dean hadn’t come back from the bar yet. Probably spending some ‘quality time’ with Jill or whatever her name was. His phone vibrated with a new text and he quickly opened and read it, typing the link into the computer, which faithfully pulled up the page instantly.

[ https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rwRVU8YjGH0 ](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rwRVU8YjGH0)

The song it led to was.... unnerving to say the least. After tracing another link he found in the comments, it led him to a tumblr platform with tons of posts on the page. He read every single one, and the amount it lined up with the murders was … not great. Still though it didn’t quite make sense, why was this _thing_ in this town, why wasn’t there any precedent, why was it killing, where did it come from? The idea clearly came from this tumblr platform, so why was it rea- Sam jerked up. 

No, No way it had to be a shapeshifter with a sense of humor like the one in that german town, or maybe some human psychopaths like thinman, this thing COULD NOT be a tulpa. He did not have the mental capacity to deal with this. There were no Tibetan symbols on the platform, and most of the people didn’t believe it, right? Looking over the platform one last time he sighed, this was not going to be fun. Leaning back in his chair he thought, if it was a tulpa, it should be trapped in a certain radius around the symbol that brought it to life. He looked back at the map Dean had pinned to the wall on their first night, and studied the coordinates. After a few minutes he had a general area of about three miles to search. He wanted to call Dean but with how he’d been acting, unless Sam could give him a table number and weapon to kill the creature he wouldn’t be interested.

As he grabbed his jacket and phone he looked at the notes he had taken of the vics last days he froze. Each of them had been cheating, yes, but when he looked closer he realized they had each started their ‘secret’ relationships almost an exact week before they died. Meaning the Tulpa must get a new play thing before she is willing to give up her old one. Someone must already be caught in its game. Based on Mr. Jenkins he had three and a half days to find and kill Jolene if he wanted to ‘save people’. He screenshotted a picture of the spirit sigil, hopefully he could cut down some time if the police had caught any vandals recently.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sam hit gold, the cop at the desk recognized the symbol, even gave him an address. Now Sam was walking to it. For once not to be healthy, but because Dean had taken the Impala. He could have ‘borrowed’ a car, but he didn’t know how long they’d be here and didn’t want to draw unnecessary attention to the Feds in town. 

When he got to the address he sighed, it was a bar/grill. He started to leave, but then paused. While the killings were spread out over town, it might be possible Jolene finds her prey at the same spot. Pulling his phone out of his pocket he quickly dialed some friends of the vics asking for where they were roughly a week before they died. EVERY SINGLE ONE of them had been at this bar. He sighed, well at least he’d have a location to give Dean tonight, hopefully they’d find some way to kill the thing before it killed another person.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

He ended up waiting until nine in the evening for Dean to get back, and when Dean did come he was smiling so much Sam thought he was high. 

“Sammy, the women here are DELIGHTFUL.” 

Sam sighed, and Dean looked at him worried. At least he wasn’t roofied right? Whatever Sam had important stuff he had to talk over with Dean.

“Dean, I figured out what we’re hunting.”

“Great, know where it is? I’m plenty rested, we can kill it and move on.”

“Yeah, it's not gonna be that easy. I think it’s another Tulpa. I haven’t figured out how to kill it yet though.”

“You gotta be kidding me man. What is it?” Dean flopped onto his bed, rolling to look at Sam while he spoke.

“Um, Jolene.” Sam looked almost embarrassed to say the words.

“Jolene?” Dean raised a sardonic eyebrow.

“Jolene” Sam nodded decisively as he spoke this time.

“Jolene?” This time, Dean's question was accompanied by an amused grin.

“Yes Dean, like the song. Apparently there's a platform online for a ‘horror Jolene’ since technically the song never specified she’s human." Sam was looking down at his laptop as he spoke. "Other people commented and there’s a whole second half of the song they’ve written. Nothing about how to kill it or any weaknesses though.”

“Well we could call Cas, his blade could probably kill it right?” Dean started to sit up as he spoke, already preparing to pray for his angel.

“Ummm, I don’t actually think so according to one line of the verse:

_Before her wrath no foe could stand,_

_Their corpses piled upon the sand,_

_The blood of gods are on her hands; Jolene._

"If Gabriel only passed for a minor pagan god, I doubt Cas can survive something that kills gods. Plus he has his own stuff going on right now. Better to deal with this ourselves."

“Well that’s great, any helpful information?” Dean flopped back again seeming to deflate as he talked.

“Um yeah some. She has red hair, green eyes. She has shark teeth and wings too I think, but I’m pretty sure she can hide those. I think she’s hiding at a local bar to find her victims.”

“What bar?”

“Milligan’s Bar.”

“Milligan’s?” Dean's question was delivered with a tone of surprise.

“Yeah, why?” Sam looked closely at Dean.

“That’s where I’ve been going.”

“Really? That's actually good. The night before Jankins died, did any couples stick out to you?” Sam had an eager glint in his eyes as he spoke. It was incredibly clear he was ready to be done with this hunt.

“Um, no Sam. I'm not some stalker, I don’t watch people do their thing.” Dena made a disgusted face at the thought.

“What? Ew, Dude! That’s not what I meant! Jerk.”

“Bitch”

“Okay, fine. Maybe it’s a long shot. But think you can go back tonight and keep an eye out for any…. Well hopefully you’ll know. I’ll keep looking for a way to kill it”

“Awesome. See Sam, THIS is my kinda hunt.”

“Yeah, whatever. Just come back here tonight. Don’t stay out all night again.”

“Yes ma’am Sammy.” Dean rolled his eyes as he went out, but Sam knew he would in fact be back before he got up. 

Preparing for another long night with his computer he stretched before pulling his chair back in and cracked his knuckles. 

Several long hours later, Sam pushed away from the table, grabbing a beer from the mini fridge, he turned back. He had found precious little on how to kill the thing. He had called Bobby and had him looking into it, but he was starting to lose hope. He didn’t know who the Tulpa was after, who the tulpa was, where it was, or even how to make it bleed. But it had to bleed, everything bled, and if it can bleed you can kill it.

Getting bored, he decided to do his own recon instead of research, maybe a change of pace would help him get fresh eyes. Grabbing the laptop and moving to the bed this time he quickly found his way into Milligan’s security system, getting into the camera’s and watching quietly. In less than two minutes he found a couple in the back, it was a waiter leaning towards someone in a corner booth. He couldn’t see the man, but now that he considered it a waitress would be the perfect cover for getting to perouse the options of men. But why hadn’t Dean spotted them yet? Or if he had, why hadn’t he texted? Actually, where WAS Dean? It was then the waitress turned back towards another patreon and suddenly he got one too many answers.

DEAN WAS THE NEXT VICTIM. On camera she was horrifying, her skin was so black it was iridescent, her eyes WERE green, but her pupils were red. Her hands were long and thin ending in claws. She smiled and her teeth were worse than a vamps and there was meat hanging from them. HOW could anyone stand to be in the same building as her? He had to warn Dean, like yesterday.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

He had run all five miles from the motel, and while he was fit, a five mile sprint still left him panting. He stumbled into the bar, still heaving, and went towards Dean. Before he had made it even past the first table he was intercepted by….. It. It looked the same in person as it had on camera and he instinctively stumbled back, It tilted its head like a bird, and opened its mouth, without moving Its jaw a voice emanated from It. 

“ _Excuse me sir? Can I help you? Are you okay? You know if you come in intoxicated we are legally bound to refuse you any more alcohol._ ”

It’s eyes were dead, and the voice was soft, but he couldn't really focus with It’s cold presence and eyes locked on him. 

“Get - Get away from me.”

“ _Sir please calm down or I will have you escorted out._ ”

As it talked another much crisper voice, like old paper, came into his head. 

“ ** _Don’t make a scene, everyone is staring. We both know you can’t kill me. Leave me be and you will not die._** ”

It’s wings came out, reaching to touch him and they felt like slime. He shuddered and wanted to back further, but this time he couldn’t. He was suddenly reminded of one of the verses in the song.

_The foolish who came to defend,_

_Their broken minds will never mend,_

_They fell at the mere sight of you, Jolene._

It was like he had been reduced to his most primal instincts; run, hide, home, find safety. But home was behind the Tulpa, his instincts wared in him. Wanting to find safety but having to pass the danger to get to it. Without his permission a whine came from his throat, and he collapsed to his butt, pulling his knees in. He was sure he looked stupid but right now all he wanted his brother. He wanted Dean, and he wanted away from the BAD THING.

Then suddenly it wasn’t so bad, he still couldn’t move, but there was hope, there was an okayness, somewhere. He followed it, trying to find the small pinprick of light. He wanted away. The only time he had ever felt this bad was in the cage. And he didn’t want to think of that, not again. So he followed the light. Soon the light changed, it was a voice, and he clung to the sound, focused on it, like he hadn’t in a long time.

“Hey, hey, Sammy. What is happening? What's wrong? You're scaring me man. Your acting worse than when Lucy was in your head. What’s happening in that head of yours? What can I do? Come on, come on buddy, come back to me. You gotta give me something. Sammy, come on.”

Sam focused, it felt harder to move and control his own limbs than it had since Lucifer was in him, and even then once he got the upper hand he was able to breathe. But still, he had to get Dean to understand, tell him what was going on, warn him. But even blinking seemed like a monumental task. He felt another whine fill his body and he tried to get words into it before it left him. 

“Out, out, please, D’n”

Even those four words left him feeling even worse, but he needed to do something more or he was going to lose himself. Sam felt Dean half carrying him, and for some reason the realization that Dean COULD still carry him felt like a gem of knowledge he wanted to guard with his life. Once they were out of the building, Sam felt like a boulder had left his lungs, but he still felt exhausted, and he clung to Deans shirt, burying his nose in the fabric that smelled of cheap detergent, oil, and gunpowder - the scent of Dean, the scent of home, the scent of SAFETY. 

From then on everything was a little foggy. He thinks Dean stuffed him in the back seat of the Impala, and gave him his shirt. On the drive, he thinks he remembers Dean talking to himself and maybe Sam. He thinks Dean completely lifted him out of the car and into the room, grumbling about ‘the only thing your rabbit food is good for’. Then he was wet and the fear hit him again, or maybe it was just an after shock. He’s pretty sure he heard Dean singing ‘Hey Jude’ while telling him he was safe now. And then he thinks he tried to tell Dean about the waitress, but Dean dismissed it as fevered babble. And he knows from when he woke up that Dean put them both in the bed near the door. Sam also thinks that maybe, Maybe he woke up in the middle of the night to Dean saying the name ‘Julie” but he hopes with all in him that that was truly just a fevered dream. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sam didn’t wake up so much as suddenly become aware of everything all at once. He practically jumped across the room to where Dean sat on Sam’s own bed with a burrito. 

“Dean I found the Tulpa, and her next victim.” Although unsteady on his feet, and feeling lightheaded, concern for his brother made Sam force himself to get his point across to Dean.

“That’s great Sammy.” Dean nodded, but his eyes looked glazed.

“Dean…” Sam backed away a little, maybe it was residual fear from last night, but something was...off about his brother.

Dean shook his head a bit and seemed to snap out of it, but Sam still kept his distance. 

“What happened last night Sam? I was at the bar keeping an eye out and then the next thing I know, you're going all Becky on me. It was like you were possessed, I even dumped some holy water on you. YOU frickin’ peed yourself.” Although Dean tried to sound sarcastic and teasing, there was real worry showing in his eyes as he locked gazes with his little brother.

“It was the Tulpa Dean, she was there, I didn't have enough information and went in unprepared, I accidentally made eye contact with her and I'm lucky I’m not hanging with Mrs. Jenkins right now.” Sam was truly scared of what had happened to him in that bar, but he tried not to show it as he explained.

“You saw the Tulpa? what did it look like?” Dean leaned forward eagerly at this new information.

“Yeah, It was horrible, it had red pupils, bat wings, and shark teeth.” Sam gave an involuntary shudder as he sat on the edge of his bed.

“Where was it?”

“Um, she, she was in the bar dude. How did you miss her?” Sam seemed worried for his brother now and his relaxed position became more taunt.

“Sam… nothing remotely resembling that was in the bar last night, I was keeping an eye out.” Dean also sounded worried and looked closely at his brother, as if hoping the answers would be hidden in his face.

“Dude, she was your waiter!”

“Sam! I don't know what happened last night or what you think you saw, but I checked her and she’s human.” His head shook in denial as he spoke to his brother.

“You don’t even know what to check for, she isn’t something ANYONE has dealt with before.” Sams cry was indignant and slightly manic. 

“Okay, say I humor you, do you have any proof?”

“N-no. WAit! Yes, on the security camera last night I got a recording of her before I left.”

Sam got up and pulled his laptop from under his bed, opening it and pulling up the file he had thought to save last night. Opening the video he shuddered at the sight of the monster, but turned the monitor to Dean.

“See?”

“Sam, I just see a normal girl, with a pretty smile.”

“What, no!”

Turning the monitor back towards himself he looked. She was still a monster. How did Dean not see it, unless…..

“Dean! You are under Jolene’s spell. You don’t love her, she doesn’t love you! I need your help to stop her!” Sam's voice edged into hysteria.

“Sam, you're my brother, I don’t want to fight you. But you need to stop, you need to leave Julie alone. She’s not some monster.” Dean got up from his bed and paced as he talked, hands running through his hair.

“She’s a murderous Tulpa Dude! She wants to kill you! You can’t possibly be this dense. If me being your brother means so much, then believe me. Remember when I had hallucifer in my head? You told me to trust you, to believe you. I did, now I’m asking you to do the same.” The puppy-eyes were out in full force, but Dean refused to even look at his brother.

“Sammy I get it, you're jealous, all your relationships go up in flames. But I'm not like that, I can keep my nose clean. Just because you want to be like Samson with your long hair and try to hold me up for once doesn’t mean you should go making problems. I’m telling you SHE’S CLEAN, and if you touch her, you go through me.” Dean's voice became dark by the end of his speech, and he stoped pacing the room, instead grabbing his jacket from the back of a chair in the kitchenette.

“Please don’t do this.” Sam was standing up now, his eyes had a wet sheen to them, and his voice cracked.

But it's too late, Dean had slammed the door behind him. Less than ten seconds later Sam hears the Impala’s engine, and hangs his head.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sam was done. This thing had messed with his brother, messed with his head, and it wasn’t going to get a chance to do more. He didn’t care if he had to tear its body apart barehanded, this thing was going to pay. He had reopened the Tumblr platform and was trying to memorize the lyrics or find some clues. So far he had found that Jolene was sexist, only going after men. And only their wives or, in the 17 year old’s case, girlfriends could see her true form. Which he was pretty sure made him the spurned lover in this scenario. But he still didn’t know how to kill it. 

By now he had a mantra in his head of circling thoughts, an undercurrent to all his research. 1) Save Dean 2) kill Jolene 3) Don’t look it in the eyes again.

He hadn’t updated Bobby, and he wasn’t about to waste precious time doing so. His brother was fated to die tomorrow night if he didn’t figure something out fast. THERE had to be something. Surely no one created such a nightmare beast and not also think of a way to kill it, right. His eyes blurred, he had to find something. Getting an idea, he went back to the original link that led him to this platform, back to the video. He played it, closed his eyes, and tried to focus on the lyrics.

_Jolene, Jolene_

_Jolene Jolene_

_I'm begging of you please don't take my man._

_Jolene, Jolene,_

_Jolene, Jolene_

_I’ll end this story just how it began._

_I'll take your teeth if you try take_

_my man._

Sam jerked forward in his seat. TEETH! It was the closest to a lead he had, the only thing even remotely resembling a threat to her. If it didn’t kill her it might be able to at least slow her down. 

How was he supposed to get close enough to her to kill. Except… Dean had been mad when he’d left. Surely even if he didn’t believe Sam he wouldn’t go straight to her though, right? Who was he kidding Dean was a wild card at this point, Sam had no idea what he’d do. Worst case scenario is he’s wrong and has to stake out the bar again tonight. 

For all it’s threat level, he doubted one confrontation would make it leave, especially when even an angel couldn’t hurt it. Cas and his mojo would come in handy right about now, but it wouldn’t be fair to him, and he might be helpless if he came anyway. Sam sighed, he really was out of options here, it was kill or let Dean be killed at this point.

He grabbed his phone and began to dial, when it started ringing. He answered it and tried his best ‘I’m a professional, don't question my authority’ voice’.

“This is Agent Ramone”

“Hi, this is the county morgue. We have a little bit of a development down here with the bodies, or more accurately the first vic, Misha.”

“What happened?” Sam leaned back in his seat a bit, surprised.

“Um, the body seems to have been, um, eaten.” The voice on the other end sounded equal parts perplexed and nervous at the admission.

“What?” Sam physically jerked in surprise.

“The body it’s just bones, like a bear or something just walked in and ate it, except the doors to the exam room were locked. Nothing should have gotten in or out.”

“Okay, can you put the other bodies in a higher security area, we don’t want to risk losing any more evidence.”

“Of course, I’ll make sure it's done.”

Sam hung up, and shook his head, this was not good. He needed to gank this thing before the whole town became a Tulpa buffet. 

_Her hunger barely satisfied,_

_She feasted on the ones who died_

He redialed Dean, and bounced, silently begging his brother to pick up.

“What now Sam.” something about Dean’s voice was wrong and Sam almost hung up right then.

“Dean, I’m sorry. You were right. I was way out of it from whatever happened last night and I wasn't thinking right. I wanted to apologize right. Where are you?”

“I’m with Julie now. I told her that you accused her of the murders. She was horrified, so if you want to apologize do it to her.” Sam almost choked, Dean had told a STRANGER about not only a private conversation, but one about a case?

“Yeah, your right. Where are you at and I'll come try to make this right.”

“Were at the bar, Julie let me in before hours to ‘have a little fun’” despite the circumstances Sam almost laughed. Apparently even a love spell like Jolene’s couldn’t clean his brother's thoughts.

“I’ll be there in ten.” he hung up, and only then remembered that Dean had the car. Apparently he was going to be a little late. If he was lucky, Dean wouldn’t tell Julie he was coming, but if he did, Sam desperately hoped she wouldn’t view him as a threat.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Getting to this point was a bit of a blur, but Sam is pretty sure that he had come into the bar guns blazing, he had tried to take the tulpa by surprise. It had worked, but she still came out on top. She wasn’t even a good fighter, he had just left his flank unprotected. It shouldn’t have been a problem, but his fighting style instinctively shifted when Dean was around. This time was different though because his brother didn’t step in, he didn’t help, he just watched from the side, a little in a daze, but still following the fight with his eyes. Now Sam was pinned to the wall, by the creature's clawed hand, and he was struggling to breathe while very pointedly keeping from meeting its eyes.

“D’n” he gasped

“ _ **Ah,ah ah. He’s mine now. He wouldn’t flinch even if I killed you right here and now.**_ ” her voices were now in sync, both the old one in his head, and the sweet one clogging his ears.

He fought weakly, but spots were coming into his vision, he wasn’t standing, but couldn’t get his legs under him enough to use his height to break her hold. Still, his arms were longer, he could still reach her. Trying to follow her arm without using his eyes to locate it, he grabbed for her face, somehow managing to get it right and feeling her teeth beneath his fingers. her breath blew across his hand, and he warily slipped his grasp around a few and yanked. Earning a screech from her. He started to grin, but one of her wings smacked at his hand. Unlike the night before where they felt oily and insubstantial this time they stung like a whip and he involuntarily dropped the teeth. She slammed him against the wall again. 

“ ** _You’ll pay for that, you pathetic worm._** ” it was only the voice in his head now, but it still had an echoing feeling, or maybe it was just a concussion. 

“D’n, pl’s” he was out of options. He didn’t know what his brother was thinking, what he saw, or even if he was in there, but he was out of options. He needed his brother.

She grabbed his chin with her free hand and pulled it up, locking eyes with her. 

“ _ **He is mine, you aren’t moving him again.**_ ” 

The fear was like a tar, wrapping around him and suffocating him. Sam could barely think, much less process what she said. But somehow the hopelessness of her words reached him. Dean, his brother, his family, his best friend, his home had abandoned him to his fate. Left him on his own to be killed, was watching indifferently as this thing killed him. 

“ ** _He can see you know, he can see everything happening, but just isn’t able to care. He doesn’t care about you. At least right now, when I kill him though, then he’ll feel. He’ll scream, just like the others, horrified with what he sees and what he’s done. And I will drink his horror like a fine wine._** ”

Sam gave another vain struggle against her hold, but despite her size she had… not natural strength. Her words filtered through his panicked mind but they fell through his comprehension like water through a sift. He caught that she was threatening Dean though, he always focused on Dean. She was going to kill him, she was going to kill DEAN. He couldn’t lose his brother, not like that. He had to stop this, he had to get away from her hold, but he couldn’t control his limbs.

“ _ **You know it might be nice once you’re gone, the first night, before I really had a hold on him, he talked about you, treated me like some wallflower not worth his time, but by the second night all he did was moan my name. And all he thought was me. But then you came in, and were whining like a dog, and somehow he focused on something besides me. He won’t be doing that again, after he came to me this morning I made sure he was solely devoted to ME.**_ ”

She let go of his throat as she spoke, having decided that he wasn’t moving on his own any time soon.

Despite the panic, he was slowly getting a grip, had been since he heard her threaten Dean. but what she said now gave him an idea. He focused on the fear, instead of trying to fight it, he thought of his biggest fears, he thought of losing Dean, and he whined again, he cried like a baby and begged for his big brother, his best friend, the one who raised him. He wanted his Dean. He wouldn’t let this psychotic creature take his brother from him, he wouldn’t lose him again. He met her eyes, not just being drowned in them, but meeting them, and fighting back.

_But I've seen beyond that auburn hair,_

_my eyes have met your vacant stare,_

_but I've been told I'm hard to scare,_

_Jolene_

“You will not take him.” it wasn’t much of a speech, but it felt like he had just lifted mount Everest with one hand.

The creature smiled, “ ** _What can you do to me, you’re lying on the floor unable to string a sentence together without exerting yourself._** ”

Somehow after the first sentence he can breathe easier, and now he replies without a quiver in his voice, “Maybe not , but I don’t need to.” He grinned then. It was bloody, unafraid, and predatory.

The tulpa started to respond, she tried to reply, but something stopped her, or two somethings. Two long sharp teeth, one emerging from her throat the other stabbed into her temple. She started gaping, somehow not instantly dead, and fell to the side. Behind where she had been stood a sweaty grinning Winchester.

“Don’ touch my br’th’r you fre’k.” his voice was slurred and he looked like he was about to pass out. Sam backed up a bit gasping and grabbing his throat a bit as he stared at the newly made corpse. 

He was sure if anyone came in just then they’d be quite the sight. As he thought of this, he slowly got up, just in time to catch his brother as he started to sway. Together, and with much coaxing on Sam’s part they made it to the Impala, where Sam bundled up Dean into the back seat, and got an odd sense of deja vu. Slowly Sam folded himself in the driver's seat, taking them back to the motel. They would have to get out of town before anyone found the body, but if they were lucky they could get a few hours of sleep and maybe a shower first.

Half an hour later, Sam had gotten Dean onto the bed, only slightly worse for wear. And he had rinsed himself off in the shower before falling onto the bed next to his brother. 

Sam was woken up about two hours later by sirens in the direction of the bar, and the day's events slowly came to him. Sighing he knew it was time to go. Rolling over he grabbed Dean's shoulder and gently nudged him. 

“Wha-s’mmy?” Dean woke up about as coherent as a drunk squirrel.

“Dean you gotta get ready we need to leave like an hour ago.” as he talked, he started packing. Thankfully he hadn’t gotten much out despite their longer than usual stay. And as he puttered around the room Dean grabbed his own stuff and stopped briefly in the shower before they were both in the car in under twenty minutes. Sam drove first, not trusting his brother’s slightly unfocused gaze.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hours later Dean was back in his place behind Baby’s wheel. And Sam was sitting in the passenger seat, both of them more than happy to be headed towards another hunt. 

“Hey, Sammy.” Dean spoke up suddenly, causing Sam to jump a little in his seat.

“Yes Dean?” He looked over at his brother in the driver's seat.

“So when the tulpa had you, how did you know I would be able to gank her.”

“She gave herself away, she said the only time anyone had broken her hold was when I got scared that night at the bar. I figured if your love for me could break the veil of her hold once it could do it again.” Sam grinned and laughed a bit as he spoke, thinking to himself of another hunt where love had broken through the veil.

“Dude, no-”

“Chick-Flick moments I know.”

Dean looked frustrated. Sam thought he knew what Deam was going to say, and Dean decided to show him that he didn’t always know what Dean was thinking.

“Actually I was going to say: no wonder I broke her spell. You needed so much help I changed the words of her song.”

“What?”

Dean began singing in his absolute worst voice possible.

“ _Jolene Jolene_

_Jolene Jolene_

_I’m begging of you_

_Please don’t take my Sam_

_Jolene Jolene_

_Jolene Jolene_

_Please don’t take him_

_Just because you can”_

Sam snorted, “That was awful!”

“You're just jealous,” Dean said grinning.

“Am not, Jerk”

“Are too, Bitch”

And together they drove off into the sunset.

**Saving people,**

**Hunting things,**

**The family business.**

**Author's Note:**

> I have no idea what happened with this fic. Any comments or advice would be adored.


End file.
